Ok, a few things to tell you about:
We, in conjunction with our ‘Socialmediaists’ and their groups are releasing a series of webisodes. Our film breaks down into four story lines that we will weave together in the final film. To give you a feel for these stories we will post them in separate linear time lines on the websites of each group. For instance the W2 story will be embedded on their site. Back on wghthemovie.ca we will post complimentary additional footage. The goal is to allow you, the viewer to be a participant in this story, see the videos, explore more about those in the stories and connect with them if you choose.
In the previous post I mentioned the W2 story thread. It is one of the four and will be the second video release. The 1st one, I want to tell you about now.
April Smith is an incredible young women facing a boat load of challenges. She has graciously allowed us to follow her for the last 8 months and gather the footage we used to compile this story thread. Hers is a story full of both despair and inspiration. Please watch and leave some feedback.
I would like to share something else. Many wonderful things keep happening to us in the making of this film. Here is an example.
I was working with Editor Hart Snider on April’s story in the Dominion Building on Hastings St. It just so happens to be in the DTES where our story unfolds. Editors have the wonderful job of spending lots of time with people they might never meet…and if we as filmmakers do our job well, the editors get to know the people in the story pretty profoundly…so imagine ‘a knock at the door’ when Hart and I were reviewing the edit. We stopped on an image of AHA Media’s (April-Hendrik-Al- the three founding members.) opened the door and there, completely by coincidence, stood Hendrik. Hart was a little confused as was I. Was Hendrik supposed to be there? Did I have a meeting planned with him? It was a bizarre little moment yet on this project very appropriate. Hendrik just so happen to be doing his rounds selling the Hope in Shadows Calendar, something he has been doing for years as well as participating in the photo competition. It was fun for them to meet and added another deeper connection to the story.
It took us a moment before we all had a laugh about the coincidence…Hendrik was excited to see what we had done but agreed to wait until we had completed the edit. I am excited for his feedback. He is a real interesting guy with tremendous insight into the DTES and it’s history.
So it is that time of year, Hope in Shadows time. A great community initiative in the DTES. The calendar is being sold on the streets by some 200 vendors trained by Garvin Snyder (not the editor or even related to Hart) but someone else who’s story we are following in our film. His is a story about civil liberties and social justice issues we are currently editing to bring to you early in the new year. It begins with Garvin’s outrage at the arrest of a 80 year old Grandmother.
Enjoy the video and get your Hope in Shadows Calenders before they sell out….last year they were all gone before Christmas…on that note I encourage you to check out the book as well, there are some very inspiring stories including that of Alisha May Walker on page 203. Her photo is of children playing with ‘Box Houses’. The photo is in the shadows with sunlight in the background. Here is her description.
“The theme of the contest was ‘Hope in Shadows’. What the photo means to me is that the boxes make the shadow, like the Downtown Eastside. the homelessness, and then the kids are the hope. There’s still hope. That’s what made me take the picture.”
from Hope in Shadows Book, Stories and Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
I believe very strongly in these stories and I hope after you’ve had a chance to see some of them you will feel inspired to participate. Enjoy
-Andrew-
Thank you so much for all your hard work! We really appreciate you and everyone at the WGH crew!